In the sad news that you may have missed over the summer, Microsoft announced that it was closing down Flip (formerly known as Flipgrid). Flip’s suite of video tools will only be available through Teams from now on.
Flip was a versatile tool that made it easy for students and teachers to create video conversations. It had a lot of nifty features, including screen capture and markup tools that were thoughtfully implemented to support making thinking visible.
We are sad to see Flip riding off into the sunset, but there are alternatives and fortunately, ISD has alternative tools to support video work with your students.
Your Flip Topics and Videos
If you have Flip topics and videos you want to preserve you still can do it. Flip’s website will be live until September 30. There are instructions on how to download the videos and copy any topic directions/supports you may want to preserve. When you log into Flip you will see a banner that you can click on to get more info about preserving your Flip videos. Unfortunately, if you want to preserve the written portions or language used on your topic pages, you will have to manually copy and then paste them into a Word document or other digital space.
What Are My Alternatives for Student Videos and Video Based Conversations?
Canvas and Canva both offer easy to use options for capturing and sharing video content. Neither is quite as easy as the wall of videos you get with Flip Topics but depending on the use case both offer effective alternatives.
Canvas and Video Discussions
Canvas has a built-in option to record from your computer’s webcam. This tool can be used with both assignments and discussions. Canvas’ record media option is a great fit for supporting things like introductions, meaningful exchange of ideas and other kinds of discussions where you desire for students to be able to see/hear what each other is saying.
Canvas’ video recording tool is bare bones though (especially compared to Flip.) However, it is still a rock-solid option for capturing video, and threading those videos together in a single place (e.g.- kind of like Flip’s Topic pages)
In an assignment, you can select the Record Media under Online Submission options, which will then only allow students to upload videos or capture a webcam recording. However, in this scenario, the students won’t be able to see each other’s videos since it is an assignment. This is good for reflection type assignments where building dialogue is not important but won’t work as well when you want ideas shared.
If you want the students to talk to each other through video in Canvas, you will need to do it through discussions. In discussions, create a prompt and ask students to choose upload/record media from the menu and record at least part of their answer in your directions. When students, reply with recordings it will in effect, create a stream of answers in the form of videos (just like a text based discussion thread). Both you and the students can scroll through and watch each other’s videos, while easily leaving replies.
Get Funky with Canva’s Screen Recorder
One of the most fun, and coolest parts of Flip, was the annotation and screen recording tools that it included. This allowed a user to put an emoji over their face for example or to put a picture on screen.
For more creative videos, Canva offers a good alternative. It has a built-in screen recorder and allows users to layer on graphics, other annotations and music. In addition, you can pull in any Canva project and include it in the video. You can also use Canva’s annotation tools to mark up things while recording. It takes a little getting used to, but is a pretty swell option once you get the hang of it.
They also offer an array of templates for fun projects like news broadcasts and videos formatted for social media such as Instagram and YouTube.
The screen recorder only works in Video projects but once there you simply click on the upload button and then the Record Yourself Option will show up. Click on that button to enter into Canva’s studio. Once there you will be able to set up your recording with options like toggling the webcam off, what screen you’d like to record and there are a few effects options. When you record it will actually capture two separate videos (one of your webcam and one of your screen) and then insert both into your video project. These videos can be submitted through Canvas integration or downloaded as mp4s for uploading later.
With the Canva integration in Canvas, you can give students scaffolded templates that provide directions and supports to get them recording right away.
Canva and Canvas: Better Together
If you want to have the creative options of Canva but also get the discussion focused benefits of Canvas, you can have student create their recordings in Canva, export them as mp4s and then upload them into a Canvas Discussion using the same Media Record option discussed earlier, but then choose to upload the video instead of record themselves by clicking on the Computer button.